Not a Flannel Friday: RAINBOW Dancers!

Happy Flannel Friday, everyone!


Here in Florida, it is a beautiful Springtime day ~ which means a quick afternoon rainshower or two just might be in our future.


I love the rain! I love the smell of it! I love the sound of it! I even love the feel of it... as long as I don't have to stay at work in soaking wet clothes. :-/


But, most of all, I love what follows the rainshower.

               A GORGEOUS RAINBOW!

One of my all-time favorite things!

So in honor of Spring, rainshowers, and RAINBOWS, I have decided to share one of my favorite  RAINBOW activities for storytimes. If you have read any of my other Flannel Friday posts and Not a Flannel Friday posts then you have probably noticed a recurring theme of colors and even RAINBOWS.

(I did just say that RAINBOWS are my favorite, didn't I?)


Over the years, I have searched out books, songs, fingerplays, crafts, snacks, and even creative movement activities to help me share the colors of the RAINBOW with my storytime friends. In this post, I want to share one song ~ but believe me, I will be sharing more RAINBOW activities in the future! This is just one of many...


It is a song with fun movements as well as opportunities to dance freely to the music. It is my MOST requested storytime activity ~ no matter what the theme or season!

RAINBOW DANCERS

(Sung to the tune of: "Where, Oh, Where Is Sweet Little Susie?")

RAINBOW dancers let’s get ready
Hold your ribbons nice and steady.
You’ll hear the colors of the RAINBOW.
Listen for your time to go.

  

Shake red…

Shake orange…
Shake yellow…
Shake green…
Shake blue…
Shake purple…

Red ribbons turn around,
Orange ribbons up and down.
Yellow ribbons reach up high,
Green ribbons fly, fly, fly.

Everybody dance!

RAINBOW dancers, dance around,
Ribbons swirl up and down.
Overhead and on the ground,
RAINBOWS flying all around.

Shake purple…
Shake blue…
Shake green…
Shake yellow…
Shake orange…
Shake red…

Blue ribbons tickle your nose,
Purple ribbons touch your toes.
Everybody dance around,
Swirl your ribbons up and down.

RAINBOW dancers dance around,
Ribbons swirl up and down.
RAINBOW dancers hug a friend,
Our colorful dance is at an end.

***For this song, I have either streamers, curly ribbon, or regular ribbon cut into 12" or longer strips.



I always make more sets of the RAINBOW colors than I think I will need. That way I have plenty of each color and each child can choose their favorite.

Sometimes I don't have time for them to choose their color ~ sometimes they just get the color that is next in my hand.

***Switching things up now and again is a good learning experience ~ because, as grown-ups, we all know that sometimes you don't always get what you want. What a hard lesson for little ones to learn! But they do need to experience this lesson ~ hopefully, in a fun situation so that they are ready to accept it more easily in a not-so fun situation.

Before starting the song, I go over the ASL sign for each color. When I make a color sign, I ask the children with that color to wave their ribbon in the air. The parents and children who do not have the chosen color are asked to make the sign with me. We go through all the colors and then we are ready to start the song. Everyone holds their color out in front of them ~ ready to start.

This song and dance is an extremely fun way to teach color recognition and following directions. Even the older siblings and parents enjoy doing this dance ~ especially when we change it up and each person gets two colors! Having two colors is, of course, more difficult and requires even better listening.

I found this song on the Start Smart Songs for 2's and 3's CD.

Here is a description of this CD from the website:

"Music and movement can provide crucial experiences for building early brain activity.  This CD contains action activity songs that are fun, short, and simple for toddlers and preschoolers.  Each song has been carefully designed and selected to reinforce important early skills development from one of four crucial areas of early brain development wiring: physical, social-emotional, cognitive and language learning."



Click here for a link to the website for the creator of this CD and several other CDs that you might find helpful when planning a storytime full of active learning experiences.

Do YOU have any RAINBOW activities, books, or crafts to share? How about snacks or songs? I would love to hear about them! Just leave a message in the comment section below. Let's have a colorful discussion about our ideas!


I have one last picture to share with you:

This little one had such a blast during the "RAINBOW Dancers" portion of our storytime that she asked for all the colors of streamers so she could dance with each color at home. She even said "please"! How could I resist such a sweet request and such an adorable face?

EVERYBODY DANCE! 

Here’s Flannel Friday information for this week:


Our host from Canada is Angela at Valley Storytime

Round up archives and host schedule is at So Tomorrow.

Visually scan all the Flannel Friday posts at Pinterest.

Talk about storytime and flannelboards at the Flannel Friday Facebook Page.

Follow Flannel Friday on Twitter with the #flannelfriday hashtag. (You don’t have to be on Twitter to check this out.)

And, last but not least, if you’re a contributor, there is an awesome blog button from Melissa and you can grab it from the right hand menu at Mel’s Desk!



HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

Let's Celebrate Books ~ Dr. Seuss Style!

I love Dr. Seuss and all his wackiness so I never miss a chance to have some fun with one or two of his books. And every year we celebrate his birthday and Read Across America at our

library storytimes. As a matter of fact, each year our celebration gets BIGGER and BETTER and LONGER. This year we will celebrate with a two week long Seuss-ational event!

We will be starting with our first ever Dr. Seuss Pajama Party Storytime and end with an evening-long Family Storytime and Game Night.

Over the next few days or even weeks, I will be sharing some of my tried and true ideas, some of my brand-new ideas, and some creative ideas from a few librarian friends. This should be a Seuss-tacular blog! 

But it will be a work in progress for awhile.

I hope you will bookmark it and come back often over the next few weeks...

I think I will try listing activities by the books that they are based on. This should help with the organization of all the  different ideas.

Most of the ideas will be active games that we have shared with our storytime friends at our Family Game Night but there will also be craft ideas, snack ideas and learning activities for homeschool and classroom use..

Everything should be adaptable for one-to-one interaction at home or group fun at parties, at storytimes, and even in classrooms. 

I will be posting a picture or two of each activity, a brief description, and a list of items needed. Included in the list will be a costume for the person in charge of the game (if we had one). Most items are found around the house, library, or classroom or something similiar can easily be re-created.

Put Me in the Zoo:

"Oh! They would put me in the zoo, if they could see what I can do."

Pin the Spot

Leopard likes to play with his spots, so why don't we have some fun with his colorful spots, too?

This game is just like Pin the Tail. It can be played two ways:

1. You can have no spots on the Leopard

 and the children can pin their spot

wherever they want.

2. You can have spots on the Leopard and

the the children have to try to pin their

spot to a spot of the same color.

You will need:

Put Me in the Zoo book

Yellow posterboard to make the Leopard

Black Sharpie marker

Scissors

Tape

Blindfold

Lots of circles:

Red

Orange

Green

Blue

Purple

Zoo Keeper Costume:

Hat





Our hat was a very old Keystone Cop hat
to which we added a Zoo Keeper patch
made from yellow fun foam and a black
sharpie. We attached it with a small
paperclip. 

Even some of our youngest storytime friends had fun with this game ~ sans blindfold. 

Go, Dog. Go!:

"Look at those dogs go. Go, dogs. Go!
Stop, dogs. Stop! The light is red now.

Go, dogs. Go! The light is green now."

Stop and Go Toss

 

The dogs need to know when to stop and when to go. Let's help them learn the difference between red and green lights.

This game is just a Bean Bag Toss game. We had the child toss the red bean bag onto the red circle when our helper said, "Stop!" and the green bean bag onto the green circle when he said, "Go!".

You will need:

Go, Do. Go! book

Black or gray posterboard

Red construction paper

Green construction paper

Tacky glue

Scissors

Black sharpie marker

Beanbags:

Red

Green

Dog Costume:

Ears

Tail

Nose

***We do a "live action" presentation of the book, Go, Dog. Go!, so we already had a dog costume. If you don't have one available, it is easy to make dog ears and tail from felt or even construction paper. You can add a nose with face paint or even a washable marker.

The Cat in the Hat:

"I know some good games we can play."

Cookie Stacking

The Cat in the Hat loves to play games and he loves to stack things so we thought Cookie Stacking would be the perfect game for him. He was very mischievious! And the rules seemed to change for each participant ~ but everyone had "lots of good fun that is funny!"



You will need:

The Cat in the Hat book

Cookies for stacking

Cookies for eating

Cat in the Hat costume:

Red and white hat

Black shirt

Black pants

Red bowtie

Cat nose

Cat tail



***As stated before, we do "live action" presentations of books so we already have many costume pieces ~ such as the cat nose and tail. If you don't have them, it is easy to make the tail from felt or even construction paper and you can add a nose and whiskers with face paint or even a washable marker. You can also make a Cat in the Hat hat with construction paper. There are many patterns on the internet for different styles. We made our bowtie from red felt and pinned it on with a safety pin.

All ages had fun stacking cookies!

Look at that concentration!
Even the younger ones were successful ~ sometimes with fewer cookies to stack.



***We found it best to have two different kinds of cookies ~ one kind for stacking and one kind for eating. We usually use the WalMart brand of sandwich cookies that have chocolate and vanilla in the package. We use the vanilla ones for stacking and the chocolate ones for sharing because everyone loves chocolate, right?   ;-)



The Sneetches:

"My name is Sylvester McMonkey McBean. And I've heard of your troubles. I've heard you're unhappy. But I can fix that. I'm the Fix-it-Up Chappie."

Fix-it-Up Tattoos

The Plain-Belly Sneetches all wanted stars on their bellies so The Fix-it-Up Chappie, Sylvester McMonkey McBean, came a long with his peculiar machine and gave them "stars upon thars!" Then the Star-Belly Sneetches decided to remove their stars and soon no one knew which Sneetch was which!

This activity is something that all the little ones line up for. We "face-painted" stars ~ but we put them on cheeks, arms, or hands ~ child's choice.



You will need:

The Sneetches book
Face paints
Paintbrushes
Bowls (if necessary)
Wet wipes or papertowels
Sylvester McMonkey McBean costume:
Green bowler hat
Large green bowtie
Yellow shirt

"That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether they had one,  or not, upon thars."

Check back again soon because I will be back with

more Seuss-tastic ideas!